Public Perception Management and The Landscape, page 1

wiki link perception management

Here's a link to a validating wiki page a must read for members . I you're someone that get accused of saying 'everything's a conspiracy" just deliver them that link ;]

Some of it explains what goes on in these here parts ,

Factors that influence the target:
Ambiguity: a lack of clarity. If ambiguity increases, the perceiver may find it harder to form an accurate perception
Social status: a person's real or perceived position in society or in an organization Impression management: an attempt to control the perceptions or impressions of others. Targets are likely to use impression management tactics when interacting with perceivers who have power over them.

Several impression management tactics include behavioral matching between the target of perception and the perceiver, self-promotion (presenting one's self in a positive light), conforming to situational norms, appreciating others, or being consistent.[3]

For this thread ,
Leaving aside government or military applications , perception management is important to businesses . Expertise can be bought or sold , or provided in house .

While the page on public perception management covers various applications , including business, it could identify two areas which form two further subheadings to how businesses apply ppm techniques :

These being "Architecture" and "Landscape" . Leaving aside architecture , for someone else
I want to talk about
Perception Management and the Landscape

Several years ago i was employed to enhance public perceptions via management of the landscapes around several business interests, one being the central offices of a large oil exploration corporation , another being a large prestige offices building up for rent in London , another being a private home of a celebrity , another being the offices and premises of a manufacturing operation , another being the newly bought London riverside premises of an investment corporation .

The real secrets of effective landscape management are only gained from experience and the strategies are diverse but generally grounded in physical and very real constraints . They differ depending on the desired outcomes for example one might wish to camouflage something or enhance another things prominence . One may seek to influence perception as if an entity was not existing there at all , or may seek to convince the perceivers of quite the opposite , that something or someone is there when they're not . Available capital may limit strategy and alter priorities but The object is always to gain preferred behaviours from general perceivers so to gain appropriate perspective we must take various examples .

Quite obviously a business or organisation normally wishes to promote its presence , it's value to the community , its corporate image for visiting executives , but at the same its impenetrability to theft or vandalism , its consistency as a long term reliable feature . All these relate to ppm of the landscape and to the suitability of the external and internal architecture of any premises of course .

In the case of the oil exploration firm , their safety record was primary to the general ppm policy and this transferred heavily into the serious concern they took with proper landscape management . Fortunately for them as the operative I fully understood their concerns and directed accordingly , and also of good fortune was the fact that health and safety led management of the landscape is fully compatible with other concerns overseen in directing public perception towards a good image of the firm's operation . What that transfers to in practice is where the secrets are .

In the case of the 3 story offices which were situated in a park and attached to a grand manor house , the remit was to get the property rented . It had to shut down for operations purposes when the previous corporate occupants had suffered a bout of Legionaires disease in the aging water tanks . There was considerable pressure to try and get a new tenant and we found ourselves maintaining much more of the surrounding area than was our property to see to , to achieve that end . Not an easy job . What else worked is where the free information stops .

In the case of the private home of the celebrity , the ppm remit was different again . The focus of strategy was to screen from prying eyes especially photographers , providing privacy , but at same time providing the country home setting a fitting canvas in which to be set, with a luxury feel to the environment . What you do to achieve that is think about how and we only had one day a week to achieve it satisfactorily .

The manufacturing operation , different again . In every case , you are limited by existing factors , in this case grubby grounds badly landscaped with poor neighbours were turned into a polished turd , but it turned out that the actual workers perception of who they worked for improved , and the neighbours practises improved somewhat . There are always gains to be made in ppm with landscape improvements even if these are limited to just maintenance .

The new riverside premises were bought by serious business people with a lot of money . What they wanted was a prestige environment with a feeling of aloof isolation , they basically bought a river island with a large black gated entrance in a busy London suburb that had 3 stories of offices . They felt the landscape needed thorough renovation and it did , the riverside banks being thickly overgrown . Foresight gained them a beautiful result , the river scenery giving an enjoyable and commentable backdrop in which to work and receive guests . Managing the perceptions of corporate clients and desirable business executives mattered to them , as well making a lot of money . They gave their new island a name .

Perception management for business and private concerns can have critical links to the landscape . Deep studies have been undertaken in to for example, the preferences that people might have for landscape aesthetics . Eg [url=http://macaulay.webarchive.hutton.ac.uk/visualisationlitrev/chap2.html]http://macaulay.webarchive.hutton.ac.uk/visualisationlitrev/chap2.html[/ur l]

Typically a problem associated with and raised by the study is that there is a failure in written research to identify practical examples of how to improve perception of landscapes , and so a translation of sorts is required and the theory is what becomes applied on the ground . Time served develops an expert eye and it is usually from this 'expert' paradigm that business ppm is applied -
it's a 'get what you're given' approach , where best practice is the approved practice , is the applied practice by those responsible for its oversight . Who controls what happens on the ground are few in number , while the users - and perceivers- of said ground may be large in number .

Without going too far to easily read and making use of the forum , what do members expect to see or not to see on any given premises they may enter ? Think of particular grounds you may have experience of , could be a private home , a hotel , a shop car park , a theme park , a pub garden , a military base , a corporate park , a stately home , a municipal building or anywhere that public perception management of the landscape takes place

Anything else you might add about ppm will be welcome /wordlimit